Business Trends

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Restaurants to Grow Slow, But Offer Healthy

Reporter | BMM | Jan 18 | food, trends

CHICAGO — The restaurant industry in 2012 will continue a slow recovery.

Ai Weiwei: The Tweeting Artist

Reporter | Don Sniegowski | Jan 2 | trends

BEIJING —As the developed world has slumped into a recession, franchising firms have increasingly looked into emerging markets for new opportunities of growth.

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Shannon Liss-Riordan: Petite Sledgehammer

Reporter | Don Sniegowski | Dec 31 | franchising, legal, people, trends

BOSTON — An attorney in a boutique Boston law firm, Lichten & Liss-Riordan PC, has gone after giants and won.

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Neal Aronson: The Private Equity Investor

Reporter | Don Sniegowski | Dec 31 | buy, franchising, people, trends

The years 2005-2008 were notable for a wave of private equity acquisitions. The 2010-2011 period will go down as the second wave.

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Rod Sims: The Regulator

Reporter | Don Sniegowski | Dec 31 | franchising, legal, people, trends

CANBERRA, Australia — Whether it's Canada's new franchise law that kicked in at the beginning of 2011 in New Brunswick on its way to Manitoba, or America's new Business Opportu

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Chandrakant Patel: Person of the Year

Reporter | Don Sniegowski | Dec 30 | franchising, people, trends

ATLANTA — 2011 saw major inroads from franchisees who used their associations to collectively obtain better transparency and even to manage national marketing and supply chains to ensure t

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2011 Person of the Year

Reporter | Don Sniegowski | Dec 30 | franchising, people, trends

Person of the Year: Chandrakant 'C.K.' Patel Honorable Mention: Australia's Rod Sims Ai Weiwei, Artist Neil Aronson, M&A Shannon Liss-Riordon, Law Darren Rovell, Reporter

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December Sees Solid Growth in Retail

Reporter | BMM | Dec 28 | retail, trends

Chart: BMM; Source: ICSC and Goldman Sachs NEW YORK — Last minute shoppers were out in force this past week as they finished up their holiday shopping, giving retailers a strong two-week sales finish to the 2011 holiday season.

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Denny’s Serves Up Collaborative Leadership

Reporter | Don Sniegowski | Dec 27 | food, manage, trends

Customers lined up in Feb, 2010 for free breakfast at a Georgia Denny's SAN DIEGO – What has emerged from turmoil of free meals and CEO succession in the Denny's chain is a restaurant network that has become the epitome of collaboration between franchise owners and franchisor. That renewed collaboration is helping the chain turn the corner.

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Chefs Predict Culinary Trends in 2012

Reporter | BMM | Dec 10 | food, trends

Sign in a Five Guys Burgers franchise shows food supply transparency WASHINGTON, D.C. — America's chefs reveal the hottest restaurant trends that they expect in 2012.

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Headlines from the 'Net

U.S. Milk Price

Reporter | BMM | Feb 1 | trends

US Milk Price Chart

US Milk Price Chart by YCharts

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Sales of Small Business Companies Increase in 2011 Franchise Stats Lacking

Expert | Ed Teixeira | Jan 24 | trends

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Websites Go Dark in Protest of SOPA, PIPA

Member | Marilee Hayes | Jan 17 | trends

Wired magazine is blackened with censors

Jan 18 cover of Wired Magazine

Two bills, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), have website publishers up in arms. They say that if enacted into law, they would be put in the impossible position of policing anything and everything posted on their website or be subject to draconian government penalties.

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Big Biz Pledges $1.2B in Services to Startups

Member | Dave Tanaka | Jan 9 | trends

For those who haven't found the right franchisor yet or are thinking that perhaps they'd be better off going it alone, the Startup America Partnership that Steve Case and Scott Case (no relationship) are spearheading may provide some help or inspiration.

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Hi-Tech: Two-Year-Old Sandwiches

Reporter | BMM | Dec 9 | food, trends

Two-year-old sandwich ready to eat; photo/BBC video

The military gave us nuclear power, jets, the walkie-talkie, digital photography, the Internet, GPS and now — the two-year-old sandwich.

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Fighting for Franchisee Rights

Reporter | Don Sniegowski | Nov 7 | buy, franchising, trends

Franchisees and their associations look at the draft of the universal franchisee bill of rights

Franchisee association leaders look at a draft of their bill of rights, Orlando

Leaders in the franchise world weigh in on the necessity of having less oppressive contracts between those who grant franchise licenses and franchised establishments that dot main street.

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Franchise Business Owners Join Senators to Urge Pro-Growth Policies

Member | Marilee Hayes | Oct 22 | trends

Franchisee and franchisor members of the IFA, along with IFA president and CEO Steve Caldeira, joined with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senator John Borasso (R-WY) and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) to call attention to the damage government is inflicting on small business.

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Detroit Will Always Be A Triple-A City

Member | Lionel Hutz PA | Aug 8 | trends

Speaking to auto execs, Chysler/Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne warned:

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Go Gecko Tastes Voluntary Administration

Member | Ray Borradale | Jul 21 | trends

The collapse of Australian Go Gecko real estate franchise encompasses some common aspects of franchising with common questions about the future of it’s franchisees.

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Ford on The Future, Beyond Gridlock

Reporter | BMM | Jul 3 | trends

Bill Ford

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Expert Advice

Hotel Managers Labor to Control Labor

Expert | Robert Mandelbaum | Jan 23 | hotel, trends

Coming out of lodging industry recessions, we have historically observed fairly significant increases in hotel operating expenses.

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Ten Predictions For 2012 Aussie Franchising

Member | Ray Borradale | Dec 23 | op-ed, trends

2011 has been a momentous year for Australian franchising with State legislation now in place in South Australia and Western Australia moving in the same direction with the appointment of a Small Business Minister.

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